This publication examines very complex, yet fascinating issues affecting the environment of the Caspian Sea and the surrounding areas. We often associate the Caspian Sea with caviar that is legally or illegally finding its way to our tables, but overlook the footprints left by a number of industries installed on shores of the Caspian that are serving the world wealthiest market demands. The struggle for access to the vast resources of this unique and fragile ecosystem and the development of new transportation routes between Europe and Asia continue to shape the geopolitical and security conditions in and around the world's largest body of inland water. These and other developments pose complex challenges in the efforts of countries to improve the damaged ecosystems that the local communities are depending on.
Vital Water Graphics is compiled by the United Nations Environment Protection Agency (UNEP) in order to provide an easy accessible resource on state of the world's waters. The goal of this publication is to produce a clear overview, through a set of graphics, maps and other illustrations, on the state of the world's fresh and marine waters. It illustrates the causes, effects, trends and threats facing our water sources, with examples of areas of major concern and future scenarios for the use and management of fresh coastal and marine waters. Additional graphics and links to relevant websites on topics presented in this publication are available on the accompanying CD-ROM.
Stuck in the middle of different as well as relevant regional complexes, the Caspian Sea basin represents a critical geopolitical hub in the heart of Eurasia landmass. Political, economic as well as strategic considerations contribute to determine the systemic relevance of the Caspian Sea, whose reputation in the West is mainly linked to the vast availability of largely untapped oil and gas resources. However, behind the fierce competition aimed at the exploitation and transportation of the basin’s hydrocarbons lies a much more complex picture, consisting of interlinked legal, military and soft power issues and threats. Aim of the volume – result of a joint research project conducted by the Center for Strategic Studies under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SAM, Baku) and the Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI, Milan) – is to address the relevance of the Caspian Sea in the post-bipolar international system, analyzing both soft and had security threats emerging form the basin, as well as the policies of littoral and extra-regional actors.
This is a summary of UNEP's activities in 2006. The main purpose of UNEP is to encourage international co-operation in preserving and protecting the environment. This objective is developed alongside other United Nations departments and international governments by addressing issues such as climate change and sustainable development challenges. Environmental issues also tie into poverty reduction and the general development strategies as set out in the Millennium Development Goals. The theme of this particular annual report is change; climate change; energy change, ecosystem change, and how such change, with impact on future generations.
Environmental protection is one of the areas where the Balkan countries still face a big challenge to catch up with their western neighbors. After the 1990s conflicts and the breakup of Yugoslavia, six new Balkan states emerged. Apart from integrating environmental concerns into the new policies, a major challenge is environmental management across new borders. What used to be six international river basins in the Balkans have now evolved into 13 internationally shared river basins and four transboundary lake basins. The situation is similar for areas of high ecological value, many of which are often located in mountainous border areas. To ensure effective protection, entire ecosystems have to be addressed regardless of the political borders that are dividing them on a map. Transboundary cooperation between countries sharing one or more natural resources is therefore indispensable for creating common frameworks that promote their sustainable use while offering an opportunity for confidence-building between cooperating countries.
This book is about nuclear legacies in Russia and Central Asia, focusing on selected sites of the Soviet atomic program, many of which have remained understudied. Nuclear operations, for energy or military purposes, demanded a vast infrastructure of production and supply chains that have transformed entire regions. In following the material traces of the atomic programs, contributors pay particular attention to memory practices and memorialization concerning nuclear legacies. Tracing the Atom foregrounds historical and contemporary engagements with nuclear politics: how have institutions and governments responded to the legacies of the atomic era? How do communities and artists articulate concerns over radioactive matters? What was the role of radiation expertise in a broader Soviet and international context of the Cold War? Examining nuclear legacies together with past atomic futures and post-Soviet memorialization and nuclear heritage shines light on how modes of knowing intersect with livelihoods, compensation policies, and historiography. Bringing together a range of disciplines – history, science and technology studies, social anthropology, literary studies, and art history – this volume offers insights that broaden our understanding of twentieth-century atomic programs and their long aftermaths.
Rising mountains of waste have become a major issue of our time. From dumped chemicals and pesticides in Africa to the electronic or e-wastes piling up in Asia, waste and the shipment of hazardous materials require urgent action on both environmental and health grounds. This publication aims to give policymakers, experts, media professionals, teachers and students a comprehensive overview of relevant waste-related issues, causes, effects, as well as possible solutions.
In the Shadow of Great Powers is the second volume of Christoph Baumer's History of the Caucasus. It covers the period from the Seljuk domination of the Southern Caucasus around 1050 CE to the present day. After the Kingdom of Georgia's golden age of independent power and cultural blossoming in the 12th and early 13th centuries, the Caucasus was overrun by the Mongols and soon disintegrated into innumerable smaller kingdoms, principalities and khanates. At the same time, an Armenian kingdom in exile maintained a precarious independence in Cilicia, today's southern Turkey, by applying a three-way diplomatic policy balanced between the Mongol Il-Khanate, the Crusader states and, to a lesser degree, the Mameluke Empire. Then followed four centuries during which the highly fragmented polities of the North and South Caucasus became political pawns of the regional great powers, above all the Ottomans, Iran and Russia. In the wake of World War I the South Caucasus enjoyed a short-lived independence whereas its northern neighbours were engulfed by the Russian civil wars. But by 1921 the Soviet Union had re-established Russian dominance over the whole region and, from a Western perspective, the region 'disappeared' behind the Iron Curtain. Nevertheless, the Caucasian nations kept their pronounced identities even under Soviet rule, giving rise at the dissolution of the Soviet Union to a number of internecine conflicts. Whereas the Russian Federation managed to maintain its supremacy over the North Caucasus – albeit at the cost of bloody wars and insurrections – Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia succeeded in more or less gaining control over their destiny. Of these three republics, only Azerbaijan secured a wide-ranging independence thanks to its fossil fuel resources. Following Russian interference, Georgia lost control over two of its provinces while Armenia remains dependent on Russian support in the face of its notoriously antagonistic relations with neighbouring Azerbaijan and Turkey over the unresolved issue of Karabakh. In the Shadow of Great Powers includes some 200 full-colour images and maps which further bring the turbulent history of this region to light.
This book examines why authoritarian governments are willing to address environmental problems that have an international impact, such as CO2 emissions, but are reluctant to address problems that have only a domestic impact. In a case study of Azerbaijani oil politics, it demonstrates how the incumbent Azerbaijani regime has taken important measures trying to address CO2 emissions while ignoring the damage caused by oil pollution on the Caspian coast. The book argues that resource-rich authoritarian governments are eager to join international environmental initiatives to improve their image, but they address domestic environmental issues mainly if they threaten their hold on power. This book is an important contribution to scholarship on environmental governance in the post-Soviet space, an area that is poorly researched. Therefore, it is a must-read for researchers and scholars interested in post-Soviet studies, as well as in the nexus between mineral-rich regions and how social policy is created, e.g., environment, education, and healthcare. In addition, this book will be of tremendous importance for policymakers and international organizations as it looks into the motivation of authoritarian states in the post-Soviet space for environmental measures.
